Note: This is a generally spoiler-free review of the entire first season of Marvel’s Luke Cage, intended to be safe for those who have not yet begun or finished all 13 episodes of the season. If you’d like to see my specific thoughts on individual episodes or plot points, please check out the episode reviews linked above, which do go into full spoilers.

Luke Cage is exactly the sort of hero Marvel needs to be bringing to life right now. There's no ignoring the relevance or significance of a bulletproof black man as a superhero, and showrunner Cheo Coker takes the weightiness of that premise and puts it to good use. Marvel's Luke Cage is steeped in the right sort of political commentary, which proves to be the strongest part of the series.

Why Luke Cage Is the Perfect Modern Hero - Comic Con 2016

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Viewers who have kept up with Marvel's Netflix series already know Luke Cage when his standalone series kicks off; as a key secondary character in Marvel's Jessica Jones, he is someone who has already been developed and explored. But Marvel's Luke Cage immediately makes it clear that whether this is the first time you've ever heard of Luke or whether you're the most well-versed Luke Cage expert around, you're going to learn something new from this telling of the story.

And it is a remix on the traditional tale. There are nods to Luke Cage's Power Man origins scattered throughout Season 1, but this time around he's an ex-cop, ex-con from the South who finds himself holed up in Harlem trying to stay under the radar. Luke is a hero who refuses to accept he is one, and his journey is Season 1 is of a person with incredible abilities learning how he can make the neighborhood a better place. Unlike the Marvel films that are looking at the big, big picture, with their titular heroes out to save the world or even the galaxy, Luke is ultimately only out to save Harlem.

One of the show's best strengths is how it captures the spirit of Harlem; the neighborhood is as much a character as Luke, Misty Knight, Mariah Dillard or any of the other key players in Season 1. Each of Marvel's Netflix shows have their own distinctive identities, and Luke Cage's comes out through its depiction of Harlem. From the music -- the incredible hip hop-filled soundtrack is the soul of the series -- to the shooting locations to the characters to the conflicts, Coker makes Marvel's Luke Cage feel tonally distinct from its Hell's Kitchen-set Netflix siblings.

Mike Colter brings Luke to life with a quiet confidence that grounds the show. It's thanks to his powerful performance that Luke Cage works as well as it does, and he rarely lets Luke dip into self-doubt even as he's grappling with whether or not he wants to be the neighborhood's powered hero. Even when the show loses its edge in the back half of the season, Colter always keeps Luke on a tight leash, showing hidden depths to a character who isn't prone to sharing and developing the superhero in really interesting ways.

Coker surrounds Luke with an array of powerful allies and enemies; Simone Missick's Misty Knight is the best new addition to the MCU from Marvel's Luke Cage, both a worthy peer of Luke and someone I can't wait to see more of in the other Netflix shows. Rosario Dawson makes another strong outing as Claire Temple, but once again faces the issue of having relatively little to do with a character whose development is stretched across separate TV shows. Mahershala Ali's Cottonmouth and Alfre Woodard's Mariah Dillard rank up there with Kingpin and Kilgrave as some of the more compelling antagonists in the MCU, but Luke Cage's villains is where the show has its biggest problem.

It's clear pretty early on in Season 1 that the mysterious Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) is the real threat for Luke to fight, and unfortunately he is the weakest link in the season and really drags down its back half. After the well-developed Cottonmouth and Mariah and the compelling way they battle back and forth with Luke, Diamondback turns out to be a half-baked character who frequently is more cartoonish than fear-inducing. His is a storyline that would have benefited from more backstory and exposition; as much as his conflict with Luke is interesting on paper, it's never written in a way that makes the audience invested.

Luke Cage: Season 1 Photos

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Mahershala Ali on Marvel's Luke Cage

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Mahershala Ali on Marvel's Luke Cage

Luke Cage: Season 1 Photos

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As the focus of Marvel's Luke Cage shifts primarily to Diamondback in the second half of Season 1, it also looses some of its confidence in what makes it so unique. While there still is some incredibly powerful imagery that reflects conflicts and debates our nation is experiencing today, some very on-the-nose in-episode commentary in the final episodes implies a lack of confidence that the show is successfully getting its message across. Luke Cage walking through a hail of gunfire is enough to make the audience understand why it's so special and important to have a bulletproof black superhero; they don't need to have it explained to them so explicitly.

But even with the disappointing second half of Season 1, Marvel's Luke Cage works a lot more than it doesn't. The show finds a convincing way for an injury-proof superhero to be in danger, and the new characters like Misty, Mariah and Cottonmouth create a fascinating backdrop for Luke's quest to save Harlem. The action scenes, though they're relatively few and far between, aren't out to top the incredible martial arts of Daredevil, but still are really cool sequences that offer some flair into Luke's brute force fighting style (except for the final battle, which ends up being as much of a letdown as Diamondback is a villain).

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The Verdict

Marvel's Luke Cage doesn't reach the heights of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, and its flawed second half ends up diminishing what was otherwise a fantastic season. But with something important to say and interesting new characters, Luke Cage is another win for Marvel's Netflix shows. Grounding the show is Mike Colter as Luke Cage, who takes a character people might have thought they knew after Jessica Jones and gives him the right amount of depth and complexity. Even if the entirety of Marvel's Luke Cage wasn't a complete win, he is still a character I can't wait to see more of in future Netflix shows like 2017's Marvel's The Defenders.